A shoe includes a shoe upper with a sole cover that covers a sole of a wearer and an instep cover that covers a portion on an instep side of the wearer. In outdoor shoes, an outer sole made of synthetic resin and the like is attached to the sole cover of the shoe upper. In recent years, attempts have been made to configure the instep cover, of the instep cover and the sole cover configuring the shoe upper, with one knitted fabric to produce the shoes with high productivity. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique of forming the instep cover in a planarly developed state with one knitted fabric, and joining such instep cover to an outer sole made of synthetic resin and the like, along with a sole cover prepared separately from the instep cover to complete the shoe.
In the shoe in which a shoelace is provided at a position of a slit extending from a foot insertion opening toward the toe of the shoe, a plurality of eyelets is generally provided at the positions of a slit edge region as a shoelace holding section for holding the shoelace. In Patent Document 1, on the other hand, an instep cover including a shoelace holding section with a plurality of holding units arranged in place of the eyelets is disclosed. Each holding unit is configured by a tubular portion (referred to as channel in cited document 1) arranged at a side surface portion of the instep cover, and a lace-like body (referred to as lace element in cited document 1) to be inserted and fixed to the tubular portion, where a shoelace is passed through a loop formed by the lace-like body projecting out toward the slit side from the tubular portion.